All Replies on Craftsman 8" table saw

13 replies so far

My attitude is “It’s what I’ve got let’s see if if we can make it work”

1. check your power cord and remove the blade. plug it in and see if the motor works.2.check drive belts, check blade for sharpness, replace as necessary3. clean and wax the table and fence. there should be no lumps bumps of crud. these will damage your work or make it difficult to control.4. test the fence and adjust as needed5. run a test cut and see how it goes.

I’m no expert but I’d check that it works Being a 8 inch I’d suspect that it’s a direct drive? Good thing about craftsman is that all (or most) the owners manuals are online so go An look it up using the model number An print it off. After that check ur blade angle to b tru. If it’s not refer to the manual u printed. I also check that the blade is setting perfectly parallel to the table Then move on to the fence. I believe they r somewhat adjustable. Also a good blade makes a world of difference. Don’t buy a cheap junk $10 blade. A good one will cost u at least $20+ pretty dang easy. If u need parts check eBay

The saw isn’t ideal for woodworking, but is likely the best one you’ve got at the moment, and should suffice to get started. I can’t overstate the importance of good alignment of the blade and fence, and the blade selection to overall performance, but especially to a smaller saw that could be a tad underpowered, so will reiturrate the good advice you’ve gotten already. Do you know if that saws has a standard 5/8” diameter arbor, or is it 1/2”? If it’s 1/2”, it could get even harder to find blades…in that case, getting blades with 5/8” bore and a reducer might be the past of least resistance.

The Freud Diablo and Irwin Marples lines usually represent pretty good bang for the buck. This blade will fit a 5/8” arbor, or a “1/2 with a reducer

-- Happiness is like wetting your pants...everyone can see it, but only you can feel the warmth....

Another option is to clean An sell ur saw and go buy another. I “upgraded” from a small direct drive delta to a craftsman 113 10inch. Night and day difference. Menards sells a real good looking master craft table saw for around $450. Boils down to how much do you want to spend

the fence is difficult to set up square (to the blade AND vertically),

the fence is difficult to adjust left and right,

the fence is difficult to keep from flexing and going out of alignment,

woefully underpowered (mine is 5/8 HP! 3/4 were available),

depth of cut is limited. It will cut a 2×4, but I wouldn’t try it with a piece that wasn’t straight, and

did I say the fence?

The good:

really light and easy to move,

it’s cheap. Disposable, even,

it will cut a 2×4 IF you have enough patience, but it’s best suited to 1” or smaller pine.

My recommendations:

use it while you save for a better saw. These saws have so many shortcomings that you need to compensate for that you are forced to REALLY slow down and think about what you’re doing. This will give you even more time to save for an even better saw :-D You’ll also learn more about what you like (and don’t like) in a saw. I learned a LOT about what I wanted from having to make this sub-standard saw work for me. My next saw was a contractor saw with a uni-fence. Talk about an upgrade!

use thin-kerf and circular saw (7-7.25”) blades that remove less wood and effectively put more power into the cut, and

do not sell it under any circumstances. There are far too many cheap tools that were bought new by the unknowing (like me, back when). They’re now out there cluttering up the used-tool market so badly that new woodworkers have a hard time finding the good tools. Dismantle it and recycle it when you’re finished with it or add an 8” sanding disk to it and call it a bench sander (which is what I’ve done), just please don’t let it back into the wild!

-- If I knew then what I know now, I'd have made a completely different set of mistakes.

I say play with it while you have it. If you get another saw later you could dedicate it to a dado blade. I disagree with the concept of taking it apart and recycling it. A working tool is a working tool and someone with little money would still want that saw, even if it is flawed.

Thanks for the replies. The table saw is in working order. It can use a new blade. I want to be able to make some nice projects and not sure if this saw will be able to do that. I’m not sure if it has the original motor on it, but it does have a craftsman plate on the motor and rated at 1 hp. Here are a couple photos of the saw along with the band and scroll saw I got with the table saw.

That tablesaw has a nice cast iorn top. If the motor is replaceable, it is easy to slap on a better one. Also the fence is replaceable too. I know Biesemeyer used to make on that would work on it. I am not sure if they still do. I have seen home made Biesemeyer style fences that worked perfectly.

I have a friend who is about to retire and just down graded to a bandsaw similar to the one you have.

I took my Dad’s 8” Craftsman with me when he moved, basically my first table saw. It looks mostly like the one in your picture, but with a different cabinet (early 70’s). The fence was the biggest pain, had to use a measure at the front and rear of the blade to ensure the fence was square before locking down.

I wanted to thank everyone for their advice that they gave. After giving it some more thought looking around I stumbled across the Shopsmith Mark 5 520 that was too good to pass up. An older gentleman used it for a couple years before building a nice woodworking shop with plenty of room for all separate equipment. This was just sitting in his building not being used for the last 6 years. So hopefully this will get me started working on some projects. Not pictured is the belt sander attachment and a brand new slide table still in the box.